Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

As Colorado's new tougher regulations on the medical marijuana business take hold — rules its sponsors predicted would curb sales — the industry is showing remarkable resilience.

The state Department of Revenue is preparing to issue its first dispensary licenses and to aggressively enforce the new regulations.

Still, of the 818 dispensaries that originally applied for licenses in August, 759 have managed to navigate the rules and remain on track to receive one. That is a drop-off of about 7 percent.

If there is a pot bubble in Colorado, it hasn't popped yet.

When the bill creating the new rules was passed by the legislature last year, one of the sponsors, then-state Sen. Chris Romer, predicted it would "close down as much as 50 percent of the existing retail structure."

That doesn't appear to have happened yet due to a combination of a product "that so many need" and the industry's ability to cope with the changing rules, said Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, a trade group.

"There will be probably some fallout, but I think this industry is pretty well grounded," Smith said.

"My priority was responsible regulation, so I'm pleased that the initial phase has worked to ensure compliance with the law," Romer, who is running for Denver mayor, said in a statement. "As we move into full implementation, I expect we'll see additional dispensaries that don't meet the strict state regulations closed."

Dispensary license application fees run between $7,500 and $18,000. The mandated security systems and other items run thousands more.

Faced with such bills, some dispensary owners have called it quits — by selling to dispensaries looking to expand.

"At some point, there's got to be competition in the market that's going to eliminate some of the centers that are less viable," Massey said.

Ryan Cook, a co-owner of The Clinic in Denver, said his business plans to double its number of locations to four.